The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-04-01
NOT RETAllATORY.
Protection Atms to Make Trade Red
Focal and tn Make tbs LaboroIsP Wag
High and His Liviag Low.

NOT RETAllATORYs
Protection Atms to maize Trade Rerss.
| rOcal and tn Make thu LaborersP Wages
High and His Liviag Low.
An ardent free trader thinks that the
Inter Occa,s caught itself in a trap when
it said. apropos of the reprisals bills:
There are people in this country who are fool
| ish enough to believe that one country can hurt
another without receiving injury itself This Is
/ IN error: trade il reciprocal.
This is, as the ardent free trader adj
mits, an admirable and entirely sound
economic theory" 1t is also, though
the ardent free trader may not be will
ing to admit it, summary of protec-
| tive tariff policy.
Trade is just reciprocal. You give q
penny and receive cake. The possess
sion Of the penny preccdes the receipt
Of the cake. The object of tariff legis-
lation is. in the eyes of protectionists.
to secure the people in possession Of
many pennies; in the eyes of the free
traders it is to glut the market with
cakes. The free trader deplorcs the
dearness of cakes, the protectionist an.
swers that if cakes could be sold at 3
penny ton the people would starve il
they had no penny to buy with.
The object of the American tariff il
neither more nor less than to prevent
the American labOrer. who now re-
ceives, for the sake Of example. three
pennies for certain work, from sinking
to the level of the European labOrer.
who receives one or, ut the most. two
pennies for the same work. 1t seeks.
and has hitherto sought successfully.
to make money more equally diffused
in America than in any other country.
Incidentally. while increasing the
price of labor. which is neither more
nor less than tending to the more
equal diffusion of money. it has reduced
the price Of manufactures; thus. to re-
turn to the original illustration. sup
plemcnting the supply Of more pennies
with supply Of chcapened cakes. The
action of the protective tariff has not
only done what it was mainly designed
to dO-stiffened the price Of labor. but
it has also done what free-tradcrs pro-
fess themselves DESTROYS Of doing
cheapcned the price of Soods. For it
is beyond peradvcnture that not only
is the the price of labor higher here
than elsewhere. but the price of I'LL
that wages OF labor buys is proportions
ately lower here than elsewhere. The
effect of protection rs means of
egnal;zing the diffusion of wealth may
be further traced in the growth of joint
stock companies for mining. trans
portating and manufacture. American
enterprises are growing too great for
private capitals to conduct. and from
the multiplicity of joint proprietorships
comes multiplicity in distribution of
profits.
Protective tariffs are not measures
of reprisal. they are not devised to in
jurc the trade IF other NATIONS; if in
Jury be inflicted it is incidental. But it
is very doubtful whether injury is in
ilictcd. England is not suffering so
much, some of her best thinkers being
witnesses. because Germany and
refuse to open their ports to
her manufactures. as in her greed to
sell she has cut down the cost Of pro-
duction to point which gives her
workmen very few pennies to buy |
cakes with. In her ca"erness fo- for
pign trade she has weakened her home
markets.
The ardent free trader goes on to say:
But now comes the Rtsr OCEAN and disputes
his principle. and declares that "tradc is re-
,iprocal.' and that I'VE can not hurt another
nation without doing injury u ourselves. But
hen it might not be fair to holi the Inter O,eaa
too closely to this doctrine as it evidently was
not thinking about the system OF bountes by
means Of tariff taxes when it mace the state
ment. The principle upon which protection is
is that trade is not reciprocal The
dea is 10 sell and rot buv.
Never was assumption less firmly
based. 1t is the great selling nation
that has been the apostle of free tr,dc
Only when England believed that she
was ready to undersell the world did
she demand abolition of tariffs. -
Inter Ocean.